Pigeons to Kings of Leon: "No"

Photo courtesy of www.kingsofleon.com

Everybody is a critic. According to Just Jared, Kings of Leon canceled their concert at St. Louis's Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Friday night when a pigeon relieved itself a little too close to bassist Jared Followill's mouth. The band had played just three songs.

After the Nashville-based band performed “Taper Jean Girl,” the third song of their set, drummer Nathan tweeted, “So sorry St. Louis. We had to bail, pigeons sh–ting in Jared’s mouth and it was too unsanitary to continue. FULL REFUNDS 4 ALL. SO SORRY. Don’t take it out on Jared, it’s the f–king venue’s fault. You may enjoy being s–t on but we don’t. Sorry for all who traveled many miles.”

The band's publicist also released the following statement:

PIGEON INFESTATION FORCES KINGS OF LEON OFFSTAGE EARLY IN ST. LOUIS

An infestation of pigeons living in the rafters of the Verizon Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO, forced the Kings of Leon to walk offstage after three songs last night. Even though opening bands The Postelles and The Stills came offstage complaining of getting riddled with large amounts of pigeon excrement, the Kings of Leon decided to carry on regardless. The band felt it would be unfair to the fans to cancel the show at that late moment.

“I’m surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did,” said Vector Management’s Andy Mendelsohn, who reps KoL. “Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn’t deal any longer. It’s not only disgusting — it’s a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will come back as soon as we can.”

When the band arrived earlier in the day, the venue warned management that there had been a significant pigeon infestation problem with summer shows over the years, but they were doing all they could to fix it.

“We couldn’t believe what The Postelles and The Stills looked like after their sets,” said bassist Jared Followill. “We didn’t want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play [but] it was ridiculous.”

Kings of Leon are headed to Chicago tonight to perform at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre as scheduled.

Wow, this is definitely a unique reason to cancel a concert. It reminds me of the time Cyndi Lauper took a mouthful of bird poop and didn't even stop mid-song. Getting bird crap in your mouth is nasty, but disappointing thousands of fans isn't cool either.

The Followills are known for being a pretentious group of siblings (+cousin) who shun those unworthy of their rock status and anyone in mom jeans from attending their shows. I'm a big fan (and I'm seeing them next Saturday at the DTE near Detroit - if the birds behave of course), but I do think these guys take themselves a little too seriously. You can't release massive pop hits like "Use Somebody" and "Sex on Fire" then claim you're a hipster rock band who's too good for the mainstream music fan. Either take your millions and try to make the most of it, or go back to playing clubs in Nashville. You can't have both.